A look into my creative world.

Explore a curated collection of my past work. At the moment, I only have permission from one couple to share their photos. Because of this, I decided to run a contest for a free session in exchange for permission to showcase my work. Expect to see more uploaded over the summer!

More Portfolio Work

I have other interest areas regarding photography including wildlife, travel, and events. Here’s some of that work. below.

Spirit?

Sometimes it's fun to do a more artistic edit. The original image was noisy, but it was the perfect bear photo and I NEEDED it on my wall. So, I made it look like a painting.

I took this photo in Grand Teton National Park in late May 2025. I was back in the Tetons in the first week of May 2026 and learned about Spirit—the last cub of Grizzly 399. 399 was tragically struck by a car and killed, and Spirit, who was with her, hasn't been seen since October 2024.

What stuck out to me about the story of Spirit is how the bear I photographed behaved around cars. I've seen well over 30 to 40 bears in Yellowstone and Teton, but this was the only one I've seen show so much visible fear of vehicles.

I caught this bear coming out of the willows close to the bridge outside of Moran. A car drove by, and this bear FLEW back into the brush. I immediately pulled over, turned my car off, and got my camera ready. I knew it was going to come back out.

Before it did, it "did the Marlin" from Finding Nemo: "First, we check to see that the coast is clear. We go out and back in. And then we go out, and back in. And then one more time out and back in..." It was unusual for National Park bears and interesting to watch.

The next thing that stuck out after looking at images of Spirit is the coloring on the back and the lighter patches of fur. The more I looked and compared, the more similarities I saw. While there are a few features I don't see, research notes that coloration can change as they grow into full adulthood.

I can't say one way or another who this bear is, but I may see if Wyoming Fish & Game and their Grizzly Research Group want all ~50-100ish images I have of this bear (dated and locations included). The timing and stature are on point, and the behavior could indicate fear based on a trauma—like its mother being hit by a vehicle.

It would be really cool if it was Spirit I saw.